Landfill Capacity

* Re: “Recycling Is Not Enough to Stem a Surging Tide of Waste,” May 19.

In your editorial on landfill capacity, you stated that the huge landfill in Puente Hills has been leaking a “chemical soup” into the ground water for years. No surprise there. But when you point out that this has led to the suggestion of putting another huge landfill in Elsmere Canyon, this is a surprise!

Have we learned nothing from Puente Hills? Elsmere Canyon directly feeds the Santa Clarita aquifer and is a wetland in the national forest. Hundreds of thousands of people depend on this precious, clean water supply. Building a landfill in Elsmere Canyon perpetuates the same stupidity that led to the Puente Hills disaster.

You concluded your editorial by saying, “Huge landfills will still be a much hated necessity, and some locality will have to accept one as a neighbor.” Isn’t it sad that Santa Clarita may become the next victim in L.A. County’s deadly game of toxic hopscotch?

MARK McCLOUD

Newhall

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* Your editorial regarding landfills has about as much depth as the L.A. River in August and exemplifies the Downtown-Westside bent of The Times. If your logic were carried through, we would have a trash crisis forever.

The city of Santa Clarita and numerous other small and concerned jurisdictions are demonstrating exactly the concept advanced by Councilman Richard Alarcon. He has a true view of the 21st century.

Trashing our pristine canyons is one of the reasons Valley secession is so popular. We are tired of being dumped on by L.A.

SCOTT E. FRANKLIN

Santa Clarita